The NAIA football coaches, with their infinite wisdom of focusing nearly entirely on wins and losses and not strength of schedule or who beat who, have put the Raiders at #17 in the latest poll released today. I thought they’d put Southern Oregon at #12 or #13 even though Massey has them at #4. All the way down to #17 means no home playoff games, even if the Raiders win out. The Raiders may need to win out just to make the playoffs. If the season were to end today, a #17 ranking would fall short.

Let’s look at some of the teams the coaches think are better than the Raiders:
#9 Doane has played one team ranked higher than them. Doane lost 69-7. SOU beat the team Doane lost to (Morningside) last year on the road in the semifinals.
#10 Georgetown’s six wins have come against opponents with a combined record of 9-34. The only team with a winning record that they have faced beat them by 14 points.
#11 Missouri Valley is not a top twenty team according to Massey.
#12 Dickinson State lost to Montana Western by 26 points. SOU beat Montana Western. Dickinson State hasn’t played any ranked team, or even decent team since, en route to their 6-1 record.
#14 Kansas Wesleyan has the 82nd most difficult schedule in the NAIA. (SOU has the most difficult schedule according to Massey.) There are only 87 teams in the NAIA. That said, KW still has a loss, to a team that hasn’t been ranked, and SOU beat KW by 44 points last year in the playoffs! Massey doesn’t have Kansas Wesleyan in their top 50, yet the coaches have them at #14.
#15 Dakota Wesleyan lost to Doane (see above) by almost 30 points.
#16 Bethal has yet to play a team with a winning record. Not to worry, Massey predicts they will lose each of their last four games.

I’m not saying that SOU should be ranked higher than Montana Tech or Eastern Oregon at this point, but the coaches clearly are dinging the Raiders way too much for losing to an NCAA DI team and for two close loses to a very good Eastern Oregon team. They see the three loses but don’t consider enough who those loses were at the hands of or the fact that the Raiders have accumulated more yards than all of their opponents, even in the losses.

Normally there are more judges than spectators when it comes to shot put. Not so yesterday at the Raider Invitational. Tylor King is also on the football team, and a large contingent of football players and other SOU athletes came out to support him. Having dozens cheer him on, Tylor nearly hit 55 feet. Even the shortest of his six throws traveled much farther than any of his competitors. He has a good chance to place at Nationals next month in Alabama.